Scientists Create A Supernova In A Lab Right Here On Earth

Scientists at the Vulcan laser lab in the United Kingdom have used three high powered light beams "focused on a carbon rod target not much thicker than a strand of hair"to create a supernova right here on Earth -- a tiny supernova, but a supernova nonetheless.

The researchers conducted the experiment to understand the shape of Cassiopeia A -- a supernova remnant in the constellation Cassiopeia located 11,000 light-years away from us and measuring about 10 light-years across. Their paper has been published in Nature Physics.

According to professor Gianluca Gregori at the Oxford University's Department of Physics -- the main author of the paper -- the experiment was possible because the physical processes can be "scaled from one to the other in the same way that waves in a bucket are comparable to waves in the ocean. So our experiments can complement observations of events such as the Cassiopeia A supernova explosion."